Interactive Timeline

The interactive timeline below depicts important events and milestones relevant to this exhibition, from the period of the early 1930’s through today. Events are tracked across three categories:

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Norman Rockwell

world events

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1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Roosevelt’s New Deal

1933 / 1930s

The largest project launched in the first hundred days of Roosevelt’s first term

Japan announces its withdrawal

1933 / 1930s

Withdrawal from the League of Nations after a resolution is passed declaring the Japanese occupation of Manchuria illegal

Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States of America

March 4, 1933 / 1930s

During his speech, FDR utters this now famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

President Roosevelt gives the first “Fireside Chat”

March 12, 1933 / 1930s

Broadcasting from the White House, Washington, D.C.

The first of many ‘fireside chats’ – FDR declares a “bank holiday,” temporarily closing all national banks and meets with Congress to discuss the Bank Crisis

Photo: Public Domain

President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor of the German republic

March 21, 1933 12:00 am / 1930s

FDR – “Fireside Chat”

May 7, 1933 / 1930s

President Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chat” – Outlining the New Deal Program

Radio Address of the President:

To you, the people of this country, all of us, the Members of the Congress and the members of this Administration owe a profound debt of gratitude. Throughout the depression you have been patient. You have granted us wide powers, you have encouraged us with a wide-spread approval of our purposes. Every ounce of strength and every resource at our command we have devoted to the end of justifying your confidence. We are encouraged to believe that a wise and sensible beginning has been made. In the present spirit of mutual confidence and mutual encouragement we go forward.- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

FDR “Fireside Chat”

July 24, 1933 / 1930s

First Hundred Days: The Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program

Prohibition Ends

December 5, 1933 / 1930s

Prohibition is lifted in the USA when the Twenty-First Amendment repeals the Eighteenth, which has been in force for 13 years.

Mrs. Roosevelt helps to launch a campaign by women

January 15, 1934 / 1930s

A women run campaign for the Roosevelt Administration’s recovery projects in the Democratic National Committee.

Photo Credit: Mrs. Roosevelt in Puerto Rico – with fellow friends and feminists, including, Emma Bugbee, a journalist who covered the First Lady, as a reporter and friend. Bugbee’s reporting helped to promote the Roosevelt administration in a positive light

Photo: Courtesy of the FDR Library Photograph Collection

President Roosevelt encourages “Birthday Balls”

January 30, 1934 / 1930s

President Roosevelt uses his birthday to encourage Americans to host “Birthday Balls” to raise awareness and money for the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation – founded in 1927 as a polio rehabilitation center.

Photo: Courtesy of the FDR Library Photograph Collection

“Fireside Chat”

June 28, 1934 / 1930s

President Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chat” on the merits of the recovery program

Photo: Public Domain

FDR “Fireside Chat”

September 30, 1934 / 1930s

President Roosevelt delivers “Fireside Chat” on Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Security

American prisoners of war celebrate the 4th of July

Americans in the Japanese prison camp – they celebrated despite all the rules against it

Photo: Courtesy of National Archives

FDR appoints Anna M. Rosenberg

1942 / 1940s

To the National Recovery Administration and then to War Manpower Commission as Regional Director. She is the first woman to serve as a Regional Manager for Social Security

FDR – “Fireside Chat”

October 12, 1942 / 1940s

President Roosevelt speaks on Report on the Home Front

FDR brings forth many subjects of discussion, including a workforce of women, the imperative after-war need for peace time, and the drafting age

We, therefore, fight for the restoration and perpetuation of faith and hope and peace throughout the world.
The objective of today is clear and realistic. It is to destroy completely the military power of Germany, Italy, and Japan to such good purpose that their threat against us and all the other United Nations cannot be revived a generation hence. We are united in seeking the kind of victory that will guarantee that our grandchildren can grow and, under God, may live their lives, free from the constant threat of invasion, destruction, slavery, and violent death.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President Roosevelt talks about the United Nations at a press conference

“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
American Delegate to the United Nations

George C. Marshall – sworn in as Secretary of State

Author Eleanor Roosevelt

She writes The Russians Are Tough, and Should a Negro Boy Ask a White Girl to Dance?

Princeton University honors three men

June 17, 1947 / 1940s

Honoring – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Harry S. Truman, and former President Herbert Hoover

Photo: Courtesy of Truman Library

Eleonor Roosevelt – United Nations

1947 / 1940s

Eleanor Roosevelt speaking at the United Nations

Photo: Public Domain

“I believed the United Nations to be the one hope for a peaceful world. I knew that my husband had placed great importance on the establishment of this world organization. So I felt a great sense of responsibility.”
- Eleonor Roosevelt
American Delegate to the United Nations

Angola and South African

A cease-fire withdraws Cuban troops from Angola and South African forces from Angola and Namibia

British physicist Stephen Hawking

1988 / 1980s

Explains the cosmos for the general reader in A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes

Photo: Creative Common

George Herbert Walker Bush

January 20, 1989 / 1980s

George Herbert Walker Bush becomes President

(January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993)

Photo: Public Domain

The Berlin Wall is coming down

1989 / 1980s

Deconstruction of the Berlin Wall from 1990 – 1992

It will will no longer divide

Photo: Creative Common

Photo Credit: image taken in 1986 by Thierry Noir at Bethaniendamm in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

President George H. W. Bush Signs the ADA

July 26, 1990 / 1990s

The American’s with Disabilities Act bars discrimination against Americans with disabilities – this enables people with disabilities access to jobs, transportation, and public places, without restrictions due to disability

The USB stick plugged into computers for portable storage

Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People launches at the High Museum of Art

November 6, 1999 / 1990s

George W. Bush – elected President

January 20, 2001 / 2000s

President George W. Bush

(January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009)

Photo: Public Domain

9 / 11

September 9, 2001 / 2000s

September 11 or 9/11- a day the nation will never forget

Photo: Creative Common

The new Blu-Ray allowed for more data storage

2003 / 2000s

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell launches at Akron Art Museum

November 10, 2007 / 2000s

Barack Obama becomes presiden

January 20, 2009 / 2000s

44th President of the United States – President Obama

(January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017)

Photo: Public Domain

Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera launches at Norman Rockwell Museum

November 7, 2009 / 2000s

Rockwell’s “Problem We All Live with,” installed in Oval Office

July 25, 2011 / 2000s

During Obama Presidency, President Barack Obama, Ruby Bridges, and representatives of the Norman Rockwell Museum view Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With. (It is hanging in a West Wing hallway near the Oval Office)